Canada's musicians offer a great harvest of music for Canada Day so get out the CDs or build a play list for non-stop music to celebrate Canada's 142nd Birthday. Here's a beginner's list of Canadian classics, new and old, that shouldn't be missed for anyone seeking some good CanCon on Canada Day.
Canadian Folk Music for the Morning
Why not start the morning with a lumberjack breakfast and a collection of songs celebrating the great landscape of Canada (the second largest territory in the world after Russia). Recommended activity during this play list is to find some binoculars and the nearest window and scour the horizon for moose.
- Ian and Sylvia - Four Strong Winds
- Stan Rogers – Northwest Passage
- Gordon Lightfoot – Canadian Railroad Trilogy
- Valdy – Blue Canadian Rockies
- Stompin' Tom Connors – Canada Day Up Canada Way
Midday Modern & Classic Canada Rock
There are loads of songs with Canadian references so shift into some noontime tunes with some road tunes first with Sam Roberts (Hard Road) or Tom Cochrane (Life is a Highway) and a cross-country road trip with these artists:
- Great Big Sea – (most songs make references to Newfoundland)
- Barenaked Ladies – The Old Apartment (Toronto)
- Tragically Hip – Bobcaygeon (Ontario)
- Neil Young – Helpless (Northern Ontario)
- Rush – Lakeside Park (St. Catharines, Ontario)
- The Weakerthans – One Great City! (Winnipeg)
- The Guess Who – Runnin’ Back to Saskatoon
- Joni Mitchell – Raised on Robbery (Empire Hotel, Maple Leafs references)
Canadian Golden Oldies
The seventies and eighties had great rock and emerging bands so anyone interested in digging up some more golden oldies should find someone over forty and ask them about Lighthouse, A Foot in Cold Water and Crowbar.
- Blue Rodeo - Any of this Toronto band's hits (15 albums including solo ventures by Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor)
- Max Webster – Toronto Tontos
- The Kings - Switching to Glide/This Beat Goes On
- Leonard Cohen – So Long Marianne
Anytime Great Canadian Content
The number of great singer/songwriters emerging in Canada these days seems infinite but when you find an artist you like, don't stop at the single; go back and explore their whole catalogue. Albums are like movies and one song is like one scene - hearing the entire production puts the artist and songs in context.
- Feist – Mushaboom (Nova Scotia)
- k-os – Crabbuckit (Toronto)
- Corb Lund – Hurtin Albertan
- Sloan – The Rest of My Life (“I know that I’ll be living in Canada”)
- Sarah Harmer – Escarpment Blues (about the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario)
- Great Lake Swimmers – I Will Never See The Sun (Toronto), Your Rocky Spine (general landscape)
- Daniel Lanois – Jolie Louise (Quebec, Hamilton)
- Royal Wood – A Mirror Without (no Canadian reference but a great song and great artist)
The Great Canadian Party Song
There’s only one song fitting to raise the roof on any party and the great Canadian party music fest can’t be topped by anything better than Spirit of the West’s Home for a Rest. Though the song talks about pub crawling on a holiday away, there’s always a fond longing to be home after a wild party – whether home is around the block or across the globe.
When the party’s over and quiet clean up time comes around, keep the sweet sounds flowing with Leonard Cohen, Jill Barber, Sarah Slean, Serena Ryder or whatever Canadian music soothes your soul.
Where to Find Canadian Cultural Inspiration
To expand your own music collection and education, find an online referral service that will match your listening preferences with other artists. Mashable, the social media guide, offers loads of information about music sources online.
And to keep your ear on a live native source listen to Rich Terfry, host of the CBC's Radio 2 Drive show . Terfry (also known as hip hop artist Buck 65) plays great Canadian content during a delightful commercial-free three hours. Listening to CanCon never sounded so good, so sit back, wave a flag, swat some mosquitoes, eat some bannock and let the good tunes roll.
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